This deep dive covers 🔍 Stage 2 — Paper That Controls Us (Stanzas 3–5) within Tissue (Dharker) for GCSE English Literature. Revise Tissue (Dharker) in Power and Conflict Poetry for GCSE English Literature with 10 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This topic appears regularly enough that it should still be part of a steady revision cycle. It is section 3 of 20 in this topic. Use this deep dive to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
🔍 Stage 2 — Paper That Controls Us (Stanzas 3–5)
Dharker shifts to the paper that governs daily life: maps, receipts, "credit crackles", "cities — / cities that grow up out of". These are the structures of modern power — borders drawn on paper, economies recorded on paper, legal identities established in paper. Dharker does not celebrate them. She presents them as constructions: "built" and "organised" by human hands rather than natural or permanent.
The phrase "might fly" applied to paper money is Dharker's most direct challenge to economic power. "Might" holds a double meaning — possibility and force. Paper money "might fly" suggests both that it could blow away (physical fragility) and that its authority could simply take flight and vanish. Dharker positions the foundations of capitalism — currency, credit, borders — as resting on material no more durable than a receipt left in a coat pocket. The arrogance of power built on paper is Dharker's quiet target here.
Quick Check: How does Dharker use the word "built" to challenge the idea that borders and cities are natural or permanent?
By insisting that cities and political structures are "built" — constructed by human decision, not given by nature — Dharker draws attention to their contingency. What is built can be unbuilt. The word nudges the reader to see maps and borders not as facts of geography but as choices made by people with power. This is central to Dharker's argument: the structures that control human lives are as fragile and as chosen as the paper they are recorded on.
Practice questions for Tissue (Dharker)
In 'Tissue', what is the final image Dharker uses at the end of the poem?
How does Dharker use form in 'Tissue' to enact her argument about power? [2 marks]